13th to 14th century: Economic upswing and oriental influences

The architecture of Palazzo Tron a San Beneto suggests that the palace ground floor and first floor were built in the 13th century at the latest, while the foundations are evidently older. Some of the bricks in the walls of the ground floor, which has meanwhile sagged heavily, date back to the late Roman Empire and were used in the architecture of Venice between the 9th and 13th centuries. Random samples taken from the façade showed that the palazzo is one of the oldest buildings on the Grand Canal.

The Gothic period reached Venice at a time of great prosperity, when the upper classes began to finance the construction of new churches and opulent mansions. Due to the proliferation of palaces being built, Venetian Gothic became a style in its own right. The creators of this new style, influenced by the Doge’s Palace, combined Gothic, Byzantine and Oriental elements to create a completely new and unique approach to local architecture.

The 14th century architects preferred the use of complex scale drawings, similar to those found on the symbol of Venetian Gothic, the Doge’s Palace. The fountain-shaped cistern still standing in the courtyard of the palazzo, built in 1319 and bearing the coat of arms of the Tron family, proves that the building was already part of the family’s property at that time.

After the Mongol conquests, Venetian merchants and merchants from rival cities made their way to Persia and Central Asia from about 1240 to 1360 as part of the so-called Pax Mongolica (Latin for “Mongol Peace”). There were small Venetian colonies of merchants in Alexandria and Constantinople. Venice’s relations with the Byzantine Empire were even closer and more complicated than those with Islamic-controlled territories, bringing with them many wars, but also promising economic and cultural contracts.

During this period, the Venetian economy was strongly linked to trade with the Islamic world and the Byzantine Empire; which is also reflected in the architectural style of Venetian Gothic, a style uniquely combining Northern European Gothic with Byzantine and Moorish characteristics. This stylistically exceptional potpourri is still visible today, especially on the façade of Palazzo Tron a San Beneto.

15th century: The ascent of the family of Tron a San Beneto

From the very beginning, the members of the Tron family occupied important positions within the Republic of Venice and sometimes served as procurators, senators and ambassadors. From the 15th century on, the family gained increasing importance as merchants and local rulers on Corfu and Crete.

The origin of the family is unclear. 18th century genealogists suspected that they were originally from Ancona. It is also believed that the Tron family built the demolished Chiesa di San Boldo in Venice in the 11th century. Furthermore, a certain Marco “Truno” was listed at the Venetian parish of San Stae in Venice in 1159. At any rate, the Tron family was among the so-called case nuove, the aristocratic, non-apostolic families of Venice.

The family branch of Tron a San Beneto originated when the family settled near the Venetian parish of San Beneto.

A major architectural change followed with the reconstruction of the palazzo under Nicolò Tron (1399-1473), the 68th Doge of Venice and most famous bearer of the family name, who had the residence extended by two storeys.

Nicolò Tron was the son of Luca Tron and had at least three brothers. He was married to Aliodea Morosini (†1478), who was popularly called “Dea Moro,” the black goddess. Dea was described by the chronicler of the Doge’s Palace to be the greatest beauty of the century. Legend has it that her beauty was of great importance for her husband to be elected as Doge due to the great beauty cult in Venice at that time. As the daughter of Silvestro Morosini, she belonged to an older and more powerful family than her husband Nicoló. Her coronation as Dogaressa was described as the most splendid in the history of Venice. Because of her modesty, she retired to a monastery after the death of her husband and, based on her vows, refused the state burial appropriate to her rank.

Dea and Nicolò Tron had two sons, Filippo and Giovanni. Giovanni suffered a terrible fate when he was quartered in 1471 in Turkish captivity.

Nicolò Tron was a merchant and had become very wealthy in a short period of time. He held several offices in the service of Venice. He was a consigliere in naval affairs and ambassador under Pope Pius II (1405-1464). In 1466, he was proclaimed Procurator of San Marco. Tron prevailed in the Doge’s election of 1471 against his later successors Pietro Mocenigo (1405-1476) and Andrea Vendramin (1393-1478), the 71st Doge of Venice. During his time as doge, the rule over Cyprus by Venice was consolidated, and disputes with the Turks were reduced by an alliance with the Iranian ruler Ulsan Hassan Beg (1423-1478). Through his skilful politics, he secured the republic a time of peace. However, the city’s indebtedness also increased sharply during Tron’s term, partly due to the expansion of the armoury, which had served as shipyard, armoury, and naval base of the Republic of Venice since the 12th century.

Tron also reformed the Venetian coinage system. He created a new coin, the Tron, depicting the Doge’s head in profile on the back in the style of antique coins, thus violating Venetian customs according to which any form of personality cult in connection with the Republic was rejected.The European Heritage Project has succeeded in acquiring an original coin, which is now on display in Palazzo Tron. After the death of Tron, the coin was withdrawn from circulation. The tomb of Nicolò Tron was built by his son Filippo in the choir of the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the district of San Polo. The sculptor and architect Antonio Rizzo (1430-1499) was responsible for the design and construction. According to its inscription, the monument was financed by the spoils from the Turkish wars.

17th-18th century: Promotion of the fine arts and the Caterina Dolfin scandals.

In the 17^th century, the members of the Tron family still occupied important positions within the Republic of Venice, but increasingly began to dedicate themselves to the promotion of culture. In 1637, the brothers Francesco and Ettore Tron, also from the San Beneto branch of the family, founded the Teatro San Cassiano, the first public theatre in the world not solely for the nobility. Ordinary citizens, if they could afford the entrance fee, could now enjoy the opera for the first time, while the popular Commedia dell’arte was introduced to the nobility.

At the beginning of the 17^th century, the diplomat, politician and agronomist Nicoló Tron (1685-1771), named after his ancestor, inherited the palace and bequeathed it to his eldest son Andrea Tron (1712-1785). Andrea was the procurator of San Marco, ambassador to Vienna, Paris and Rome, and one of the two main candidates for the election of the Doge in 1779. He lost the election due to the numerous scandals surrounding his wife Caterina Dolfin (1736-1793).

Both famous and notorious for her views, her work and her past, Caterina, historically speaking, can be considered the better known, if not more important, personality within this marriage.

For centuries, the Dolfin family was one of the most important Venetian patrician families, and, as a branch of the Gradenigo family, it was one of the twelve so-called “apostolic” families of Venice.

Caterina was the daughter of the nobleman Antonio Giovanni Dolfin and the noblewoman Donata Salamon, who also came from one of the oldest aristocratic families in Venice. Caterina’s father lost the family fortune during his lifetime and, with his death in 1753, left his wife and daughter in great debt.

In 1755, the young Caterina entered into an arranged marriage with Marcantonio Tiepolo, a member of another influential noble family who had the financial means to free her from her debts. There was much speculation in Venetian society about the marriage of Caterina and Marcantonio; it was assumed that Caterina had a love affair with Andrea Tron in 1756, only a few months into her marriage. Very soon after the affair began, Caterina filed for divorce and the affair became the subject of a major scandal. After years of litigation, the annulment was granted in 1772, whereupon Caterina married Andrea Tron, who used his marriage to enter the highest circles of Venetian society eventually holding the prestigious position of Procurator of San Marco.

In 1757 Caterina made her debut as a writer under a pseudonym. Her most famous work was a collection of sonnets inspired by her father and published between 1767 and 1768. She was at the centre of a circle of intellectuals and maintained a prestigious literary salon. In 1772 she was summoned before the Venetian Inquisition because some of the works in her library contained ideas of enlightenment.

However, Caterina Dolfin not only used her poetry, entertainment art and intellectual relevance to shock Venetian society; she is said to have had numerous affairs. One of her most famous lovers was probably the Duke of San Gabrio, Gian Galeazzo Serbelloni (1744-1802), who was eight years younger. According to their correspondence, which is still preserved today, the affair may have begun in 1773.

In 1778 Andrea Tron, Caterina’s husband, was elected Senator. However, he lost the Doge’s election in 1779 although he was one of the two main candidates. This was partly due to the scandals surrounding Caterina at the time, as well as her involvement in the Gratarolo affair, named after the Venetian Foreign Minister Antonio Gratarolo.

In 1775, a play, presumably commissioned by Caterina, revealed Gratarolo’s political intrigues and private affairs. In the same year that Andrea Tron applied for the Doge’s office, Gratarolo answered the insult with a revenge play that caricatured Catarina Dolfin and her social circle, exposed her love affairs, and publicly defiled her name and reputation. The play destroyed Andrea Tron’s chances of becoming Doge, although it turned out that the victorious candidate had a wife who, as a bourgeois and former tightrope walker, was even less suited to the title of Dogaressa.

Caterina Dolfin was widowed in 1785. She had inherited a considerable fortune but got into a quarrel with her former parents-in-law. In 1788, she finally moved from Palazzo Tron to her second home in Padua. In her later years, she worked on a project to reform women’s education, but it was never completed.

End of the 18th century and the 19th century: Many changes of ownership

When Chiara Tron, who was childless, died at the end of the 18^th century, and the family branch of Tron a San Beneto died out, the property went in direct succession to the patrician family Donà Dalle Rose due to Chiara’s marriage. However, this led to inheritance disputes as the family branches of Tron a San Stae claimed the palazzo. Nevertheless, the Donà Dalle Rose family was able to assert itself in court against the Tron a San Stae family.

As a result, the palazzo, with the exception of the 2nd floor, was sold to the Vivante merchant family. The family had always been wealthy, but with the dissolution of the Republic of Venice in 1787, the city experienced a severe economic crisis. Only one branch of the Vivante family, the two sons, Lazzaro, called Mandolin Menachem, and Sabbato, managed to survive the crisis financially. One of the factors contributing to their success was the marriage policy of the family which joined another important high socio-economic Jewish family, Treves de Bonfili. The two sons married two of the daughters of Baron Giuseppe Treves de Bonfili (1794-1866). Both families were equally active in the maritime and insurance sectors. After the death of his brother, Sabbato continued the business and, in 1832, founded the Venetian branch of Generali Insurance Venice, then Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche. He sold his stake in the insurance company to Spiridione Papadopoli (1799-1859) in 1848, one year before his death.

In the meantime, the Italian central bank, the Banca d’Italia, acquired the palazzo with the aim of establishing its head office in Venice, but at the end of the 19^th century the property was sold to the Rocca family from Padua. The Rocca family had the palace restored on a large scale for the first time in centuries. The self-contained Corte Tron, the inner courtyard of the palazzo, including the elevator, was built during this period.

From the end of the 19th century until today:

Of expeditions, famous guests and ducks in the house of Franchetti

The Vivante line died out in the 19^th century and Palazzo Tron a San Beneto passed to the Franchetti family, a Jewish family that had lived in Venice for many generations and one of the richest families in the Mediterranean since the 18^th century. In the course of the equality policy in the 19^th century, the family was elevated to the status of nobility. The marriage of Baron Raimondo Franchetti to Louise Sarah Rothschild (1834-1924) from the House of Rothschild in Vienna, enhanced the family’s reputation. The composer Alberto Franchetti (1860-1942) was born out of this marriage. His son Raimondo Franchetti (1889-1935) was to be remembered as the most famous member of the family. Until his death in a plane crash in the Egyptian desert, Raimondo Franchetti made a name for himself as an explorer studying ethnology and nature. His expeditions to North America, Malaysia, Annam (today a part of Vietnam), Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan were photographed and filmed, making him particularly popular. He also documented the 1911 Revolution, also known as the Chinese Revolution or the Xinhai Revolution (1911/12), from the fall of the Chinese Emperor to the founding of the Republic of China.

In 1920, he married Countess Bianca Moceniga Rocca (1901-1958), whose family owned Palazzo Tron a San Beneto at the time, whereby the former family property of the Franchetti barons was returned to them.

Raimondo and Bianca Franchetti gave their five children the particularly exotic names Lauretana, Simba, Lorian, Afdera and Nanuk as a testimony to their love for distant places and foreign cultures. After Raimondo Franchetti’s death, his children established the Palazzo Tron a San Beneto as a lively social location. Numerous European and American film greats resided here, including Sophia Loren (*1934), when she was a guest at the Venice Film Festival in 1955. A photograph of the Italian film diva in one of her most epic poses on the balcony of the Palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal captures her visit for posterity. The American novelist Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was also a frequent guest at Palazzo Tron a San Beneto in the 1940s and became a good friend of the former Palazzo owner, Baron Nanuk Franchetti. It became an annual tradition for Franchetti and Hemingway to hunt ducks together in Cortina d’Ampezzo after the summer in Venice. Franchetti served as a model and inspiration for the literary figure of Baron Alvarito in Hemingway’s novel “Across the River and into the Trees” published in 1950.

Afdera Franchetti (*1931) was very involved with the European jet set and the British aristocracy. Her marriage to Howard Taylor (1929-2017), the older brother of the film icon Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011), introduced her to the circles of famous Hollywood stars. In the 1950s she met Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), who, in turn, introduced her to Henry Fonda (1905-1982), 26 years her senior, and one of the most important actors in film history to this day. Afdera married Fonda in 1957 but they divorced in 1961 because the baroness felt that their age difference was too big.